Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/145

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TIMON
TIMROD

Methfessel, and Jacob Schmitt, and came to this country in 1835. In the same year he appeared at the Park theatre. New York, as a pianist, and obtained an engagement to play second horn in the orchestra, and occasional piano solos. Dur- ing this time he was also organist at Grace church. About a year later he became musical director of an opera troupe at the Charleston theatre. In 1838 he returned to New York, where he settled permanently. When the National opera-house was built he became chorus-master and trombone- player; but the theatre was soon burned. In 1843 he became president of the Philharmonic society, which post he held for sixteen years. During his presidency he frequently appeared as the piano soloist at the society's concerts, and for eight years was trombone-player in the orchestra. He became well known as an excellent piano-teacher, and his services as an accompanist were much in demand. His published compositions are few, the most nota- ble being the second piano part for Johann B. Cramer's eighty-four "Etudes."


TIMON, John, R. C. bishop, b. in Conewago, Pa., 12 Feb., 1797; d. in Buffalo, N. Y., 16 April, 1867. In 1802 he removed with his family to Balti- more. He assisted his father, who was a merchant, in his business, and was engaged in trade in Balti- more, Louisville, and St. Louis till 1823, when he entered the Lazarist seminary at the Barrens near St. Louis. He was ordained a sub-deacon in 1824, and accompanied Father (afterward Archbishop) Odin in a missionary journey through Texas. He was raised to the priesthood the following year, appointed professor in the Barrens, and became a member of the Lazarist order. He also did mis- sionary work throughout a large district, and be- came famous as a controversialist, sometimes meet- ing as many as six clergymen of other creeds in public debate. But his great achievement was es- tablishing his order in the United States. Serious differences had arisen between Bishop Rosati and the Lazarists with regard to the tenure of property, and Father Timon showed great tact in bringing about a settlement. In 1835, at the assembly of Lazarist deputies in Paris, it was decided to erect the American mission into a province of the order, and Father Timon was elected its first visitor. He relieved the order from financial embarrassment, reduced to submission many members who had be- come disaffected, prevailed on others who had left the community to return, and acquired property of great value in St. Louis and other cities. In 1838, at the request of Bishop Rosati, he took charge of the missions in Texas. He offered the first mass in G-alveston. and erected the first altar in Houston. In 1839 he was appointed coadjutor bishop of St. Louis, but earnestly asked the court to be allowed to decline, and the nomination was cancelled. In 1840 Texas was separated from the Mexican diocese of Monterey, and Father Timon was appointed prefect apostolic of the republic, where.he took measures to secure the restoration of the church property that had been confiscated by the Mexican government. He went to Paris in 1841 on business connected with the Lazarists of the United States. His energy appeared to increase with advancing years. Seminaries were given into his charge in every part of the United States, which he supplied with professors from the members of his community. A narrative of the length of the journeys that "be undertook in many western and southern states, and of the difficulties that he over- came, would seem incredible. The career of Father Timon was marked by many acts of courage as well as personal sacrifice and charity. His rescue of the Sisters of the Visitation from a flood in Kaskaskia had all the elements of romantic bravery. When he was appointed bishop of Buffalo in 1847 he showed reluctance to accept the office, but he yielded to the pressure that was brought to bear on him, and was consecrated by Bishop Hughes in the cathedral of New York on 17 Oct., 1847. At the beginning of his administration he de- manded the transfer of the title of the property of St. Louis's church, Buffalo, to himself. This being refused by the trustees, they were excom- municated, and he laid the church under an in- terdict. The controversy, after being the subject of discussion in the legislature, was finally settled by his submission to the trustees in 1855. He in- troduced the Sisters of Charity in 1848, began St. Joseph's boys' orphan asylum in 1851, and after- ward the New Catholic reformatory for boys. He began the Foundling asylum in 1853, and subse- quently founded the Deaf and dumb asylum, St. Mary's German orphan asylum, the Providence lunatic asylum, and many other charities. Among the educational and religious institutions that he founded or aided in establishing are the Seminary at Suspension Bridge, the College and convent of the Franciscan Fathers, the College of St. Joseph, the Redemptorist convent of St. Mary, the Commu- nity of missionary Oblate Fathers, and several sis- terhoods. See his life bv C E. Deuther (1868). '


TIMROD, Henry, poet. b. in Charleston, S. C. r 8 Dec, 1829 ; d. in Columbia, S. C, 6 Oct., 1867. His grandfather was a German, who emigrated to this country before the Revolutionary war and settled in Charleston. His father, William (1792- 1838), was a me- chanic, but a man of very poetic temperament,who wrote some fine lyrics. He com- manded a corps in the Seminole war, composed of Germans and men of German de- scent residing in Charleston, and from the exposure and hardships of the service con- tracted a disease that resulted final-

ly in his death.

Henry was educated at the University of Georgia, but took no degree. He was of scholarly tastes, and was a writer of verses from his childhood. After leaving the university he studied law in the office of James L. Petigru, but his enthusiasm for literature interfered with his studies, and he finally abandoned them and fitted himself for a college professor. William Gilmore Simms. who was then in the height of his fame, was in the habit of gathering round him those of the young men of Charleston that had literary proclivities, and lie did much to foster the genius of Timrod, Paul II. Hayne, and other voting southern writers. Timrod's first volume 'of poems (Boston, 1860) contained such fine work that it was hailed as an earnest of great excellence. In 1861 he began to write that series of war lyrics which made his name popular throughout the south. In 1862 a project was formed for having a volume of Timrod's poems brought out in London: but the pressure of great events interrupted this scheme,